A Record-High Number of Young People Are Still Living With Their Parents: Why?

By Derek Thompson

September 3, 2013

Another month, another record number of young people living at home long after their teenage years are over.

This time, it's the Wall Street Journalreporting that, despite the improved economy pulling unemployment down for the last three years, the share of young adults living with their parents is still rising. Still! More than a third of Americans between 18 and 31 are currently living with their parents, according to the Current Population Survey.

Seriously. What's going on here, if it's not just the economy?

We can begin to find the answers in the new mammoth Pew Research Report, released just this month, which found a record 21.6 million "Millennials" living at home. The answer boils down to three variables, which I'll sum up as: economics, bachelor's degrees, and bachelors.